Australian Lenka will be stopping by Minneapolis' Cedar Cultural Center on Thursday, July 9th, in support of her fourth album The Bright Side (which came out June 16th
â€¦

Australian pop singer Lenka is currently on a US tour in support of her latest album The Bright Side (Skipalong/Hickory Records/RED Distribution), stopping by the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis on Thursday, July 9th.

According to the Cedar, the show was originally sold as a seated show, so seats were put in place... but Lenka was convinced that she needed an open area in the front for the "dancey pants", so seats were set up on the left and right, leaving about two yards of emptiness in the center.

Nick Howard

Brighton singer/songwriter and winner of The Voice of Germany in 2012, Nick Howard opened up the show. This was Howard's third time in Minneapolis in a year, so clearly he's fond of the city. He's only played in the winter, so he was really surprised to see people outside ("in shorts!") when he arrived in the city earlier in the day.

Immediately after his first song "Can't Let You Go", he joked "Thank you and good night" and then joked again that he thought no one was at the show and then realized they're all seated on the left or right of the stage.

"Days Like These" was a little personal song from Howard. He wrote it after being told by his boss of his dayjob to give up on his dream of writing music. Of course, now with four albums under his belt and playing thousands of shows all over the world (appearing on live television and playing with/opened for Tristan Prettyman, Train, and Jack Johnson), his message is to believe in your dream and not let anyone keep you down with their pessimistic views.

Highlight of his set was a cover of Britney Spears' "...Baby One More Time", which, when played in acoustic and by a male singer, came off as sounding a bit like Travis' cover version (complete with that "still believe" in falsetto). Since Howard has confessed in the past that he's influenced by Oasis and Coldplay... I think he would find it flattering to be compared to Travis.

He ended his set with an off-mic version of "Falling For You" and, like his previous jokes, said that he would do "the world's worst stage dive" to the empty dance area in the front of the stage.

Lenka

Looking at the custom stage dressing of handmade clouds, sparkly raindrops and lightning bolts, I got the feeling that Lenka was a very creative person. I half-expected her to come on stage in a wacky dress of her design... but nothing like that. Instead, she had a full band, guitarist Trey, bassist Blake, and drummer Taylor. Lenka would double on the keyboard stand and a portable compact keyboard.

After "Blue Skies" was played, Lenka requested that dancers fill the space she specifically requested the venue to leave for her. As soon as she said it, as if she's given permission, the dedicated fans ran to the front of the stage and started dancing to all her songs. Lenka also started judging the best dancers, and, in fact, awarded her favorites a fanzine/artbook of her latest The Bright Side.

In the middle of her set, she had Nick Howard come back on stage to help her sing their duet "Stuck Like Glue", which, of course, Howard had to comment that Lenka did something he could not: filled the dance floor.

The rest of her set were all love songs, "Go Deeper" and "Don't Let Me Fall", following "Two Heartbeats" (a song about her unborn child). The latter also featured the child's heartbeat recorded on her iPhone and mixed into the studio track.

Setlist

"Free" was handwritten onto the set (see photo), because a fan had requested it. Apparently this song hadn't been played in a while, so Lenka apologized in advance if they messed up. They didn't... and the song sounded great. It's very catchy and simple, and I'm not sure why they don't include it on all their set list.

The one cover Milky Chance's "Stolen Dance" was also equally catchy, and you can see why Lenka love to play that song (and secretly wished she had written it).

"Trouble Is a Friend", the penultimate song, had the biggest reaction from the fans. Personally, I felt they could have ended the set with this song, ending it on a high note... but instead they took it down a notch with "The Show", which closed out the set.

The double song encore featured Lenka solo on "Like a Song" and the full backing band for her title track "The Bright Side".

If you like dancing... or acoustic singer/songwriter, this is a really fun show for you.
Lenka's The Bright Side is available now on Skipalong/Hickory Records/RED Distribution;
Nick Howard's latest Living in Stereo is out now on Satellite Music LLC.

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Australian Lenka will be stopping by Minneapolis' Cedar Cultural Center on Thursday, July 9th, in support of her fourth album The Bright Side (which came out June 16th via Skipalong Records/Hickory Records/RED Distribution).

Recently, the singer said that due to a family-related emergency, that she will be forced to cut her US tour short, so the following shows are cancelled: Wilmington, Vienna, Chapel Hill and Atlanta. Fortunately, Minneapolis is still on her radar.